hundreds & thousands

moved

I've moved my blog to be part of my web site for the time being. I am going to ask someone clever if there is a way to publish here and there at the same time, because I know some people prefer blogger.

But in the meantime, I am here: www hundreds dot ca

rags

I don’t think I will ever have the time to do this, but I like think about projects I can’t actually do sometimes. Moroccan Boucherouite rag rug kneel & mercado via bud pnq, pinterest and a pretty comprehensive how-to from chawed rosin.

fuel

If you give a man some pizza, maybe some tea, and another, tinier man, some oatmeal and Reese's pieces ice cream, and they get together at a party (the kind of party where you would find all these things), then this is what you find on the table afterwards.

bookstand ♥♥♥

This morning I saw this pin and followed it to this interview with Claire Cottrell and discovered bookstand. I am in love.

One of the books (sold out) on bookstand is a flower with love which is one of my favourite bruno munari books. I found it at the public library before I actually knew who bruno munari was.

david bowie's peter & the wolf

Still right in the middle of winter, this is sort of perfect for a rainy day inside: David Bowie narrates Peter & the Wolf. We've been looking at all the instruments. I love the kettle drums! And the oboe. The piece is in several parts. It's not very well organized on youtube — see here to find them in order.

A couple of years ago I bought a little pattern for a turtle pincushion off of etsy when I was looking for some fabric. My making time has really dwindled recently — I have to focus more on drawing right now. When my son was a baby, the only things I could make easily near him were knitting and hand-sewing. Having a sewing machine, pins and iron out was too much trouble. Now, it's opposite. I don't have the time to knit, and if I have a spare hour in the week to make something I need it to be efficient. I need a machine! Anyway, I tried out this turtle for a birthday present. I used muslin lining instead of interfacing to keep it soft, and I used velvet for the body (which is really hard to keep straight, but feels nice). My auggie, who is now 3 1/2 and whose interests are: trucks, cars, emergency vehicles, lego (and now skateboards) surprised me by asking for one of these. He's asked 4 times. It's partly the velvet, I think. I was going to use one of his dad's old shirts instead of the flower fabric, but he really wants the flowers, so I'll try to do another one if I can soon.

year of the snake, postscript

I took Auggie birthday party shopping a couple of days ago at collage collage. He picked out this wooden snake as a present and asked to paint it for his friend. We used the leftover paint from the banquet snake. Then he made up meanings for all the colours for his friend. These are the meanings: yellow means the sun will be out; blue means there will be a blue sky, green means it is summer because there is green grass in the park and brown means there are cars and trucks outside. (I don't remember what red and gold mean because I didn't write them down right away.)

hey pal

These great photos are by my friend, Lori Kiessling. (She also took my profile picture).

Looking at this, it just occurred to me how really small you are when you are three. If I met a dog who was my height, I would probably not be this brave :) This is a very gentle African Ridgeback.

fresh start

desktop calendars

I've made some little desktop calendars for 2013. They're pretty fast to make and fun, so I might make more now that I have the templates.

Auggie desktop calendars are up on the Auggie bloggie. If you are a subscriber to this blog or to the auggiebloggie, I'll let you know directly when the February ones are ready. The calendars are a free download and are formatted for standard home computer, iPad 1 & 2, iPhone and iPhone 5 — you can go to the auggibloggie to find them.

y.n. rich kids

(I didn't post yesterday because I set this blog up on my web site. I will still post here for awhile.)

You can buy this track for $1. Watch it after the jump —

Fresh green salad with pistachios and apples with a lemon, mint & gin dressing — this is really good with leftover turkey. The original recipe calls for turkey, but this is a good green salad on its own and would be refreshing in the summer. I think next time I will try it with pink lady apples instead of granny smith.

I love this X so much. So clean and swoopy. Merry Christmas.

year of the snake

I've had a banquet sew-a-snake-kit in my sewing box for almost 2 years and this Christmas was the right time to make it. The scarf I was knitting for my son wasn't working out and I like to give one homemade thing — this was quick and pretty. I used all his favourite colours: orange, yellow, gold, brown, purple and navy. This year will be the year of the snake...the forecast is calm and bright (also kind of sexy) but we have to wait until February. I'd quite like to convert from Christmas to lunar new year.

This snake looked so pretty under the tree. I overheard Auggie showing it around his room. Then he gently broke the news to the snake that he preferred his new Brüder garbage truck (to the snake) and comforted it with a dish of water and the promise of a trip to the garbage dump. If you make homemade gifts, that might make you laugh :)

pretty little guitar

This sweet little guitar arrived in our home yesterday evening. It is a hit — there's a little hootenanny going on right now. Last year we made a little gift box ukelele if you'd like to make some music right now.

napkin whale

Auggie just sat down and cut this out of a paper napkin. He told me it's a whale shadow puppet. He's taped it up over his bed with purple washi tape. I really love it!

december 21 — first day of winter

A bear possesses enormous strength yet generally thrives on fruit and honey. Because of their habit of hibernation during the winter months, bears can represent resurrection.

To see a bear in your dream represents independence, strength and renewal.

Bear by Reynolds Stone.

pink tape

I just bought "pink tape" (detail above) by Sydney Vermont at Your Drawing Weekly for $1 and you can, too.

I'm putting this up as a resource — this pattern is out of print — the zip up a baby hoodie pattern by Marge Webster

I tracked down the zip up a baby sweater pattern while looking through some old craft magazines from the 80s at the library.

Christmas decor from Marimekko. Perfect colours for this time of year — even more when it's rainy and grey rather than white. They have a sweet Christmas stocking there, too.